


to be with you

by HiddenEye



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Family Feels, Family Issues, Forbidden Love, Gen, Mild Blood, Post-Giving Birth, Pre-Canon, Season/Series 05, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 12:51:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13858146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenEye/pseuds/HiddenEye
Summary: His eyes are squeezed tight in protest, and what little hair he has is matted and wet against his skull as she stares at his teethless red gums. His rounded ears. His pale skin.Her son is far much smaller than an average Galra infant would be, much so that most healers would have considered him as premature.





	to be with you

**Author's Note:**

> s5 was awesome yo, it could be my next fav to s2. I honestly love how family-centric it was and I’m still crying at the club at Krolia and Keith, I love them. 
> 
> Since we have no idea what Papa Kogane’s name would be, I’m just gonna use Akira, Keith’s original name from old voltron.
> 
> Enjoy!

The first time Krolia holds her son in her arms, she worries.

Her palm alone manages to cradle his whole head while he wails into the space of the bedroom they’re in. She gingerly brings his still bloody body nearer to herself to have a better look at him, leaning back slowly until her back hits against the bed’s headboard with a minute _thud_.

He’s at the crooked part of her arm with his own tucked to himself, fingers clenched tightly into balls of fists, his small chest heaving with each sharp breath he sucks in to roar his way out of the discomfort of being born into a new world, a new place without the familiarity of her womb. His eyes are squeezed tight in protest, and what little hair he has is matted and wet against his skull as she stares at his teethless red gums. His rounded ears. His pale skin.

Her son is far much smaller than an average Galra infant would be, much so that most healers would have considered him as premature.

But, when she carefully opens his hands to count his fingers —five on each, like she has— glances down to see his feet, listens to how strong he sounds with the capibility of his lungs, she finds that he is healthy and well.

He’s small, that much she’s sure. Like the creature she sired her child with.

There’s a shift at the corner of her eye that makes her lift her head, seeing the way her lover has already cut the umbilical cord and is cleaning his hands with a cloth after setting aside the stained sheets. He reaches for the jug he’s put on the chair near him, pouring warm water into a bowl before dumping in another smaller and cleaner cloth into it. She watches him twists the cloth and lift his head, and sees how bright his eyes are when he meets her gaze.

He holds her look for a moment longer, the sound of their baby’s hiccups and whimpers feeling in the space between them. It’s then he stands up to drag the stool he’s been sitting on a bit nearer to her side, bringing the bowl with him before he sets it on the bedside cabinet. Krolia doesn’t break eye contact with how the human sits down again with a creak.

Akira leans forward to press a lingering kiss to the side of her head, disregarding her drenched hair and how she’s covered with her own blood.

She closes her eyes, turning her head a bit to press her nose against his cheek, exhaling heavily.

“Are you okay?”

She nods, and there’s another sharp wail from the baby in her arms that wants both of their attention.

“We need to clean him.” Akira murmurs, regretfully leaning back to dunk the cooling cloth into warm water again. He begins running the cloth over his son’s head, down his chest. There’s love in his smile when he faces his son. “He’s beautiful.”

“He looks more like you than me.” She moves the baby a bit for Akira to wipe under his arms and his legs. “And he’s so much smaller than I expected.”

“He’s normal for a human baby.” He assures her, gently dabbing at the corner of the baby’s eyes before he washes the cloth and squeezes out the blood. “Can you turn him around for me?”

She does, letting the baby rest onto her hand, and he begins wiping their baby’s back. At this point, he’s already quietened down from his restlessness at the sudden change of position, and Akira chuckles when his son jumps under his hand from his frequent hiccups.

His eyelids begin to flutter, and it seems as if the baby is trying to peel his eyes open through the high rays of the afternoon sun streaming from the bedroom window. Krolia feels her breath lodged in her throat when the baby squints and blinks his way through the blinding light, before he lets out a pitched sound of protest that makes Akira peer at him in alarm.

And then, he grins wide and unabashed. “He’s trying to open his eyes. Let’s get him wrapped up real quick.”

They use the soft white cloth they’ve bought from before, and Krolia lets him take the baby from her hands as he does the job on the empty side of the bed with cooes of encouragement spilling from his lips.

The baby has Akira’s eyes; beautiful and painfully honest, the same ones she sees the first time she meets him after crash landing on Earth. She remembers staring into them through the length of her blade, the tip pressing warningly under his chin, while he has the nozzle of his gun aimed directly over her heart with his teeth bared into a snarl.

She’s come to know those eyes when she makes the choice of not killing him. She comes to know how he’s a species of far too much empathy when it comes to the things that happens without his will to prevent it. She comes to know that his own heart is as large as the stars she’s flown by before when his passion for his work teeters to the brim.

She comes to love the man over the course of the year as he shows her how his world works, and it almost jeopardises her mission of finding the odd energy source emitting from the planet she’s been assigned on in the first place.

There’s no lead, and she makes excuses to stay longer on Earth every time Kolivan contacts her for feedback.

Especially when she’s finds out she’s expecting a child by then.

“We haven’t named him yet.”

She blinks when Akira sits at the edge of the bed, and flicks her eyes to where he’s gazing at the baby with a soft look. A small smile forms on her lips when he directs the same expression to her way. “I really like Keith.”

An eyebrow cocks up suspiciously. “This isn’t because of Keith Urban, is it?”

She shrugs, reaching up to let her fingers run through her hair. “It’s a very likeable name.”

“So, it _is_ because of him.” Akira clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth, and she lets her smile widen a bit more as she begins untangling the knots. “Man’s been under the ground for decades but his mullet still leaves an impact on the living. Must be the devil’s work.”

“We can choose another name if it bothers you that much.”

“Nah.” He grins, and she considers rolling her eyes at him. But then, he looks down to their baby again, a fond look breaking through. “I know you want that name for a while now, and I got used to the way you were talking to him in the middle of the night. It’ll be a shame to change it now.”

She feels herself stiffen at his words. She has no reason to believe he doesn’t know what she talks about during those times when she thinks he’s already asleep, when she thinks she’s the only one awake with the baby as her company.

He’s not supposed to hear those.

“What,” she notices the way his lips purses slightly as he rubs the back of his finger against Keith’s cheek, and the child blinks back at him in curiosity. “What else did you hear?”

“You keep apologising to him, Krolia.” Akira says softly, and she doesn’t take her eyes off her son when the finger taps his nose. “When you haven’t done anything yet.”

It breaks him for her to even consider it, as if she’s committed a deep fault that would hurt Keith in the future.

With Zarkon still on rampage, it would, especially when she’s already roped Akira into her life. He already knows what she is, how she works for the Blade. If he and their son’s blood spill on her account, she’ll never forgive herself for as long as she breathed.

Akira knows that she has work, of course. She tells him this every month or so but ends up staying in his arms a bit longer, and what problems that rages on in those galaxies feels far and distant to where they are.

“I don’t want to leave both of you,” she says quietly, letting her hand splay against the back of his neck until Akira lets himself be pulled into her embrace, his forehead pressing onto her shoulder while he prevents Keith from being crushed between them. “But, I can’t let you follow me.”

“I won’t leave now, though, not for the next few years.” She continues, letting her fingers comb through his hair while watching the way Keith yawns against his chest. She wets her dry lips. “Kolivan would have to understand.”

“He won’t be happy.” There’s a warning in his tone, and he lifts his head to peer at her through his lashes. “The Blade won’t be happy.”

“They would have to deal with it.”

He frowns then. “I don’t want you to suffer.”

“My child needs me.” She cups his face then, her thumb brushing the swell of his cheek. “And I need you.”

 

* * *

 

“His name is Keith.”

Her fingers hover the control panel, and she’s unable to reel in the way she snaps up to meet Kolivan’s impassive expression, no doubt seeing the type of reaction that comes out of her. “Keith.”

Her tone is flat, and his look doesn’t change at how she deliberately makes herself sound uninterested. She straightens her spine subtly, eyes never leaving her leader’s quiet scrutinisation. “He’s new, I persume?”

“He wields your blade.” The ringing in her ears amplifies at the words, and she curls her fingers into a fist from the camera’s eye. “And he has the same appearance as your mate.”

“Kolivan—“

“I’m have no interest is meddling with what’s been passed.” She locks her jaw, the ache in her chest pressing steadily deeper into her centre. “He would come to you in less than two vargas, I expect both of you to report to me personally once you arrive at the base. With high ranking commanders still fighting for the throne despite Lotor’s coronation, we can’t waste anymore time.”

Of course.

She nods, loosening the grip of her fingers. “Very well.”

“Knowledge or death, Krolia.”


End file.
